Southampton for a few hours

This morning was glorious! Almost no wind, temp in the high 50’s, not a cloud in the sky. Just a great day to wander around the old city of Southampton.

I slept in and had a late breakfast while waiting for the UK bound passengers to disembark along with the QM2 tours groups. But the primary reason for my late start is that none of the three places I wanted to visit opened before 10:30 AM.  

West Quay was as entertaining a destination as it usually is. I wandered through Waterstone’s wishing America still had bookstores. John Lewis offered excellent yarns, so I bought 2 skein each of two as well as Karen’s embroidery floss.

Solent Sky was everything I hoped it would be. I was waiting when the doors opened at noon. For a bit I was the only one in the museum. I got a crick in my neck from looking up as the planes are positioned one on top of another in a random pattern that rises 60 feet from the floor. I saw an original Spitfire, a mini-plane carried by a submarine and a real Flying Boat. It was very hard to get good pictures as the hangar was dim and the planes I was looking at were so close together that a singleton shot of one was almost impossible. 

As I was reading about a coral-covered propeller, Alan came up and we began chatting about the planes. I told him that I had been intrigued the first time I went fishing on the St Johns River below NAS Jax and saw the anchoring pylons’ images on the fish-finder sonar. That’s when I discovered that NAS had been a major PBY facility. Alan recognized the base as he has a friend in Plant CIty who owns a PBY!

He offered to give me a guided tour of the cockpit of the Beachcomber Flying Boat owned by the museum. It was awesome!!!!!! Walking around inside that plane was like being in a cathedral. 

Talking with Alan, I also learned that our Navy’s P3 Orion was the direct descendant of this flying boat as it was used in the war as a very effective u-boat killer. The flying boat squadron sank several dozen in their convoy protector role during WWII. 

One astounding artifact was this lace panel hanging from the ceiling. the Battle of Britain Commemorative Lace Panel must be 30 feet tall and 8 feet wide. Amazing!!!!

Alan offered to let me try out this soon-to-be-refurbished pilot's seat. Alas my butt was too wide!!!

Very satisfied with my day, I returned to QM2 and took a nap. 

While at dinner, I met up with Karen and we plan to meet tomorrow.

After dinner, I chatted with Martin and Gwen (normally adventure holidayers) on their first every cruise. Delightful couple.

Edwin, no relation to my cabin steward Edwin, is a delightful waiter who should go far. 

Captain Chris Wells has gone on holiday; our new captain is Aseem Hashmi. When he came striding through Carinthia this evening, no one smiled and he never looked at the passengers. Neither trait seems to be to portent of a raging success for this gentleman. But who am I to understand the minds of Cunard/Carnival executive board members.